GRANT=6661676;R13HS The Council of State Government proposes to hold a national invitational conference titled "The State Officials Summit on Chronic Illness and Disease Management" in March 2003. The Summit on Chronic Illness and Disease Management seeks to educate state officials and stimulate an ongoing dialogue among stakeholders and policymakers about improving chronic illness care. The conference will focus on the prevention, treatment, and disease burden from various chronic illnesses, including arthritis, asthma, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. The conference will accomplish the following: * Educate state officials about the barriers to receiving quality care common to individuals with chronic illness. * Explore research findings regarding the inefficiencies in health care system that lead to poor quality care for chronically ill patients and drive up health care costs. * Highlight legislation, programs, and best practices that research has indicated effectively prevent or treat chronic diseases while containing health care costs, including educational efforts, care coordination, and disease management programs. * Discuss improved care for chronic illness in workgroup sessions of experts and policymakers and draft bipartisan consensus principles for state legislation and agency programs based on research findings. * Broadly publicize the conference discussion and workgroup recommendations by publishing materials for state officials on chronic illness following the conference and disseminating them to a broad audience in state government.